Here is the best matches I watched the last week! With a focus on 2001, current stuff, and our weekly Joshi chronological watch. I’m in my favourite stage of watching a year, where if a wrestler has less than 3 recommended matches I decide if I can find more or care enough to find more.

Honourable Mentions

• Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs Lioness Asuka & Meiko Satomura (GAEA, 2001-01-21)
• Akira Taue vs Jun Akiyama (NOAH, 2001-02-25)
• Genichiro Tenryu vs Taiyo Kea (AJPW, 2001-03-03)
• Matt Hardy vs X-Pac (WWF, 2001-05-21)
• Billy Kidman vs X-Pac (WWF, 2001-07-22)
• Kumiko Maekawa vs Momoe Nakanishi (AJW, 2001-10-24)
• Donna del Mondo vs Prominence (Stardom, 2023-02-17)
• Masha Slamovich vs Mickie James (Impact, 2023-02-24)

#10
Hawk, Animal, & Kensuke Sasaki vs Scott Norton & The Steiner Brothers
NJPW Battle Formation
April 29, 1996

Six big brutes out there just bruting each other at a big Dome Show is always going to be enjoyable. The highlights were Scott Norton, who was the king of the brutes. There was a moment when The Road Warriors took out both Steiners with lariats, but that failed miserably when tried on Norton! Also, Norton gave a devilish power bomb to Sasaki. It lead to a fine finish with a Steiner being isolated and The Road Warriors double-teaming them to victory.

Rating: 7/10

#9
Ayako Hamada vs Azumi Hyuga
“Queen of ARSION Championship”
ARSION 3rd Anniversary
February 12, 2001

Why does every match in 2001 need a five-minute mat segment that goes nowhere?

After that section, the match really took off and was excellent. Hyuga is such a great flying babyface and I did wish Hamada was more of a bully in this. Hamada can also dish out spectacular spots, so this got a little much. That being said, it was a very exciting match.

Rating: 7.5/10

#8
Akira Taue vs Vader
“GHC Heavyweight Title Tournament: First Round”
NOAH Navigation for The Victory
March 25, 2001

Taue had amazing coffee this day as he was feeling it here. He unleashed vicious offence and choke slams even outside the ring and through a table. After some complete destruction by Taue, Vader makes a very well-earned comeback with tremendous selling. Vader does a LOT to keep Taue down in an awesome 10-minute war.

Rating: 7.75/10

#7
Chihiro Hashimoto vs Unagi Sayaka
Sendai Girls Never Winter
December 23, 2022

I loved this match! Unagi is a perfect underdog to the overpowering Hashimoto. Unagi had amazing selling, tremendous nearfalls, perfectly timed kick-outs, and some counters into submissions that were surprising but awesome. Her unorthodox style is a great counter to Hashimoto’s no-bones about it crushing style. I loved Unagi trying to get a win by count-out by wearing Hashimoto down with an Octopus on the floor.

The finish by Hashimoto was tremendously vicious and a perfect capper to this awesome match.

Rating: 8/10

#6
Kazayuki Fujita vs Yuji Nagata
“IWGP Heavyweight Championship”
NJPW Super-Force Group Declaration
June 6, 2001

I usually dislike shoot style, but this is my new favourite shoot style match ever! This felt like an early UFC battle between a wrestler and a ground and pounder. It makes sense because Fujita is basically a mixed martial artist, not a wrestler, but Nagata really works well in this role. Fujita was a hoss and Nagata battled. It’s only ten minutes, and there are a few minutes in the middle that if they cut this would have been even higher.

Rating: 8/10

#5
Genichiro Tenryu vs Kodo Fuyuki
w/ special referee Ashura Hara
FMW Kawasaki Legend
May 5, 2001

This was two tough older men pounding the crap out of each other with an intense crowd and a great special referee apperance. They hit each other hard and Fuyuki beat Tenryu down to a bloody pulp until Tenryu could hit enough lariats to put him down! I had no idea FMW was still good this late.

Rating: 8/10

#4
El Hijo del Santo vs LA Par-K
“Cage”
Tijuana
November 16, 2001

I’m not entirely sure what to say about this, but it was insane. The bulk of the match was a pretty fine brawl between two great brawlers inside a cage with a hot crowd. After that, Santo tried to escape but Park’s rudo buddies came and beat him down. They eventually handcuffed him to the ropes, while Park took exposed wires and shocked him! Santo’s técnico buddies saved him though, and they reversed the shock onto Park and then carried Santo out of the cage. The crowd was amazing.

Rating: 8.25/10

#3
Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato
“AAAW Tag Team Championship”
GAEA Limit Break
April 22, 2001

Every new Akira Hokuto and Mayumi Ozaki tag match I find to watch brings me great joy, and from this match, a different type of joy. This match was two badass veterans taking on two high-flying youngster underdogs and both teams played their roles to perfection. Lots of really cool flying spots by Nagashima and Sato, but just as many more badass spots by Hokuto and Ozaki. Just a tremendous tag team match!

Rating: 8.25/10

#2
Candy Okutsu, Cutie Suzuki, Mayumi Ozaki, & Sumio Toyama
vs
Devil Masami, Dynamite Kansai, Hikari Fukuoka & Hiromi Yagi
“1 Fall Dead Heat Match”
JWP
March 21, 1995

The rules are a bit odd, where falls are a 1 count, not 3. It starts off with a singles match, where if you win in under 5 minutes you continue on against the next person until your 5 minutes are up. The team with the most falls wins, if it’s a tie it’s sudden death tag match.

The first few singles contests were perfectly booked with Kansai hitting a fall in 7 seconds, followed by a massive upset and someone surviving Devil Masami taking her out with a double count-out. The rest of the battle leads to a shocking cover to tie things up going into sudden death.

The tag portion was chaos, in the best way. Think of the desperation to break up pins in a Dragon Gate match, but with only a 1 count fall instead. The finish was great. A beautiful match.

Rating: 8.5/10

Fan Favourite
Ayako Sato vs Ayame Sasamura
Diana
October 1, 2022

Thanks to Kadaveri from discord for giving me this match to watch knowing my love for Ayako Sato, even though I’ve only seen a handful of her matches!

This started off as a solid veteran working with a hard-smashing wrestler, but by the end, it really won me over. All of the offence was really solid, I mean you felt it. It built very well and gradually got more and more intense and exciting as it went along. By the end, all of the nearfalls were awesome. Sato continues to impress me and Sasamura was someone I’d never seen before, but really enjoyed.

Rating: 7.25/10

Match of the Week
El Hijo del Santo vs LA Park-K
“2/3 Falls”
Monterrey
December 23, 2001

This match was the absolute perfect hate-filled violent gritty bloody brawls. You know it’s going to be something special when both wrestler’s costumes are white. By the end, both were wearing pink.

I loved how this naturally felt like a fight. They threw each other into chairs, stomped really hard, punched, etc… This wasn’t about hitting spectacular moves, it was about trying to hurt the other while you are pissed off. That being said, there were plenty of dramatic nearfalls and a few big spots that were spectacular.

Even the rudo and técnico disagreeing referees were done well here, especially in how that came to the finish. A true must-watch classic if you like blood and brawls.

Rating: 9.5/10

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